Regional Water Knowledge Hub for
Water and Climate Change Adaptation in
Southeast Asia

NAHRIM’s Expertise

NAHRIM was established by the Government of Malaysia in response to the country’s increasing number of water-related challenges, including floods, drought events, deteriorating water quality in rivers and coastal bodies, competing users, erosion, accretion, sedimentation, and not least, the impending anticipated impacts of climate change on water. Operating under the direction of NAHRIM’s Research Centre for Water Resources, the regional water knowledge hub for climate change adaptation has building capacity in areas of water management impacted by climate change due to global warming as its goal.

NAHRIM’s Services

The main priority of the regional water knowledge hub for climate change adaptation is to develop well-informed personnel in relevant agencies around the region to help it brace itself for the impacts of climate change. More specifically, the hub will: :

• Develop and offer courses and training programs in the areas required and specific to the region, that are relevant and self-sustaining;
• Assess the impacts of global climate change and land use change on water balances and water quality in Southeast Asia through regional interactive climate, hydrology, and water quality models, such as NAHRIM’s Regional Environmental Hydroclimate Model (RegEHCM), part of which is already complete;
• Train technical personnel from interested agencies around the region in the use of state-of-the-art data and technology from regional environmental hydroclimate models and water resources systems models designed to combat the impact of climate change in the region;
• Help develop clients’ and partners’ awareness of water-related issues in agricultural, coastal resource, biodiversity, forestry, public health, energy, and socio-economic planning, drawing on the expertise of regional and international t eaching personnel ;
• Create feasiblepolicies for the optimal management of the region’s water resources and the mitigation of the potential impacts of climate change against a variety of likely future water demand and land use scenarios;
• Develop a simulation model for water resources systems at the regional, country, and watershed scales that will include both water balances and water quality conditions (water temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, nutrient loads, etc.) under global climate change and future urban-industrial-agricultural water demand and land use scenarios; and
• Predict possible scenarios of land use change and urban-industrial-agricultural water demands in Southeast Asia in the 21 st century at a fine space (grid resolution ~3 kilometers) and time (hourly/daily) resolution.
  

NAHRIM’s Knowledge Partners

NAHRIM facilitates regional networking with partners throughout the Asia-Pacific region to share knowledge, develop capacity, and coordinate services. NAHRIM’s current national and local partners include government agencies and municipalities in charge of managing water resources and water quality conditions and/or land use and land cover in Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. NAHRIM’s international partners and clients consist of global research agencies and training institutions, development agencies, and financing agencies that address water resources development and environmental issues. Possible partners of the regional water knowledge hub for climate change adaptation in Southeast Asia include the following:

• Local and national agencies and governments at risk of being affected by climate change
• The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand
• United Nations University (UNU)
• California Hydrologic Research Laboratory (CHRL), the United States
• Institute of Water Modelling (IWM), Bangladesh
• UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP), University of Oxford, the United Kingdom
• Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC)
• Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM), Malaysia
• Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI), Malaysia
• Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), Malaysia
• Network of Asian River Basin Organizations (NARBO)

All local, national, regional, and international agencies and institutions interested in climate change adaptation in Southeast Asia are also invited to join.

Contact Information

Ir. Salmah Zakaria, PhD
Director General
National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM)
Email: drsalmahz@gmail.com

Ir. Ahmad Jamalluddin Shaaban
Director
Research Center for Water Resources, NAHRIM
Email: ahmadj@nahrim.gov.my

Lot 5377, Jalan Putra Permai, 43000 Seri Kembangan
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Tel +603 8948 1001, 8948 1002
Fax +603 8948 8009, 8948 3044

Website: www.nahrim.gov.my